Preservation is the activity of protecting, preserving, preventing and eliminating harmful factors to artifacts caused by the impact of nature, the environment or men. If not handled scientifically and promptly, over time the artifacts will be degraded, damaged leading to destruction and even loss is inevitable. Newly collected artifacts, after classifying and inventorying, are a complex and meticulous process from analyzing and evaluating the current state of artifacts to cleaning, removing dirt, preserving preliminary information before being stored.

Preservation of artifacts in general and preservation of paper artifacts in particular include the following stages: Organization of preservation storages; preventive preservation; Therapeutic preservation and documentation of artifacts. This task was assigned to the Inventory and Preservation Department by the leaders of Dak Lak Museum. Up to now, the base storage of Dak Lak Museum is preserving over 1,000 paper artifacts. These artifacts have been documented by the Inventory and Preservation Department. They are organized neatly in non-acid paper boxes, ensuring the best conditions for them to be unaffected by the environment.

For preventive preservation, cleaning and flattening artifacts is one of the important first steps, helping artifacts avoid direct harmful agents. The specialized tools for the prevention of paper artifacts include the soft bristle brushes used to sweep dust on the surface of artifacts, the rollers and sticks to smooth out the folds. Flattening, vacuuming and cleaning artifacts to help them be preserved in the best way, avoiding factors that directly affect the artifacts.

Tools for cleaning and flattening the paper artifacts

Cleaning, sweeping dust on the artifacts

Cleaning dust and rolling to make artifacts flat

Flattening the corner of the curled artifacts

Artifacts are cleaned and the edges are flatten to be laminated

Each artifact material is preserved by different methods. For paper artifacts, the type of artifact is easily impacted and affected by factors such as temperature, light, humidity, insects, etc., the preservation of artifacts and documents properly according to the right process. This is an important task to help increase the life of the artifacts and preserve the knowledge in the artifacts for long-term research and display.